


I turn around (there you are)

by I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Fanfic of MuffinLance's Towards the Sun fanfic..., I think this is also my first fanfic of a fanfic..., Iroh hurts my heart, This is my first Avatar fanfic, Told from Toph's perspective because ugh my feels, Toph and Sparky friendship is the greatest thing, WHAT EVEN IS THIS FANDOM, bby which I mean it was easier to articulate with Toph....
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:42:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23391148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own/pseuds/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own
Summary: Agni is not having a fourth Fire Lord within the span of one summer. It's not a Fire Lord Scramble here! He's not the Oprah of this realm!Or, in which Zuko gets help from an unexpected source during his Agni Kai with Uncle
Comments: 82
Kudos: 1720





	I turn around (there you are)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Towards the Sun](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19252807) by [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/pseuds/MuffinLance). 



> So, I absolutely had to do this because of the rage I felt when reading that, okay? I just had to, had to, had to, had to!!! If I was a firebender I'd be breathing fire!!!
> 
> Also, I may have been listening to far too much Red while writing this... Whhoooooppppsss.
> 
> Oh, I don't own Avatar and I don't own any of MuffinLance's OC's... though I think Izumi is the only one I used in this??? 
> 
> Chapter title is from Wasting Time by R.E.D and alternate Chapter title 'your love is a lie (I will fight to forget) your love is a knife (I will die to forget)' also by R.E.D from Fight to Forget

Toph ‘watches’ the Agni Kai with growing levels of anger and terror, feels the way Sparky’s inner spark dips so low a gentle breeze could blow it out, watches as it suddenly rages into an inferno, only to dip once again. She’s not an expert on firebenders, but she can tell that isn’t healthy. As unhealthy as the way his heart is stutter-stopping, like it’s too weak to keep beating, but it hasn’t figured that out on its own yet.

They shouldn’t have let Uncle do this. But really, if Uncle had told them what he was planning, she’d have smashed him over the head with… maybe the entire damn volcano! If she wasn’t so tightly in control of her bending at all times, she’s pretty sure this stupid volcano wouldn’t be dormant anymore.

Then there’s a moment, where Uncle throws fire, Sparky _just_ manages to move out of the way, but he stumbles, in time with his heart stuttering in his chest. It doesn’t beat. She’s sucking in a breath to scream or cry or bend a wall between them or _something_ that she doesn’t know when suddenly it beats again. Sparky’s inner flame bursts once more into full bloom and the fight continues. Toph still wants to scream. She wants to scream at Uncle and kick him and bury him so deep in the earth he’ll never get out. She wants to march over to him and yell ‘you’re killing him!! You told us you loved him! But you’re killing him!’ but she doesn’t. She doesn’t do that at all. She stays, rooted to the earth which is her only means of knowing if her friend is alive.

She knows the body can continue to live for up to twenty minutes after the heart stops beating. She’s _felt_ it before. But there’s damage, sometimes irreparable damage to the brain because the blood isn’t pumping anymore. Sparky is _so_ close to his heart stopping and it not starting again and there’s nothing she can do, because Uncle is an old fool who thinks he knows what is best.

Her parents had been like that, too.

There’s another moment, where Zuko moves out of the way of Uncle’s attack, when his heart stutter-stops again. She feels it _spasm_ in his chest, it’s not a beat, nothing at all like a beat. But he doesn’t collapse. He doesn’t _move_. She feels the panic rising in her again as Uncle moves, like he’s going to attack, when suddenly Sparky’s heart starts beating again. For the first time since Toph touched down in the Caldera, Sparky’s heart is beating _normally,_ and his inner flame feels like Uncle’s, only, somehow, she thinks it’s burning hotter, bigger, _brighter_.

There are electrical signals in the heart, she’d been listening when Katara had talked about it. About why it was so devastating to the body when lightning struck. Why Uncle talked about redirecting lightning, how you had to make sure the lightning never touched the heart. Because there is already an electrical system in the heart and the lightning interferes.

Whatever Azula’s lightning had been doing to Sparky seems to have corrected itself. Toph doesn’t understand it, but she knows what she feels. So, she tells herself to calm down. Let’s the worry sit in her stomach, but not react to it. She just lets herself watch the fight.

When this is over, she and Uncle are going to be having a long talk.

Sparky circles around Uncle, his movements graceful and precise, where before they had been wobbly, uncertain. When Sparky finally attacks, she can’t see it, but she can feel the heat and she knows it must be impressive, given the way those around them all gasp in shock and not just a little bit of awe.

“When did you learn that?” Uncle exclaims in shock, even as he’s already moving out of the way of whatever attack Sparky has made.

“I had time to research before the Eclipse arrived. Thank you for pointing me to the old archives, _Uncle.”_ Sparky answers, and oh man, there’s no love in his words, in his voice, in his body _at all_. “My Great Grandfather Sozin betrayed my Great Grandfather Roku, as my Uncle Iroh betrays me. I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the favoured son of Fire Lord Azulon, the Dragon of the West.” Sparky comments, his hands moving in a familiar motion, that makes Toph’s breath catch. “Azula and I always suspected mother was responsible for that, you know? That grandfather threatened to murder me to teach my father a lesson, and my father was willing to go along with it, because Azula was _his_ favourite. So, mother and father betrayed my honoured grandfather to save my life and install my father on the throne. The throne that should have been _yours_. If you wanted it so badly, _Uncle,_ you should have fought for it when you had the _right!_ ” he shouts, shooting the lightning towards Uncle, who is quick to redirect it, but isn’t fast enough to resume a defensive position and just narrowly misses a blast of fire so hot even Toph can feel it on her face. Sparky is playing for keeps.

“Zuko-“

“Never give up without a fight. That’s what you and my father have taught me, _Uncle_.” Sparky responds, breathing flame. “If you want the throne, you’re going to have to kill me. And since I’m technically _regent_ for Azula, you’ll have to fight and kill her, too. Someone told me you refused to fight my father, because the world would see it as a brother fighting his brother. I wonder how the world will see an old man fighting and killing his niece and his nephew for the throne he’s proclaimed for _years_ that he never wanted?” every word out of Sparky’s mouth is like a knife directly to Uncle’s heart. Toph started this whole challenge worried about _Sparky’_ s heart, but now she’s worried about Iroh’s, which is making little twitches of its own. “My father once told me that I would learn respect, and suffering would be my teacher. You played a long game, I respect that. So, thank you for your lesson, _Uncle._ I will keep it in my heart for the rest of my days.” He bows, it’s a bow she recognizes as student to teacher, but in any other setting, it wouldn’t make Uncle’s heart stutter like _that!_

“Zuko-“ Uncle exclaims, again, this time his voice is choked. His heart is doing that odd little stutter-stop that Zuko’s was doing and his inner flame is flickering.

“That’s not Zuko.” Aang whispers beside her, Toph turns towards him, her head cocked to the side.

“I don’t understand.”

“I mean, it _is_ Zuko. But someone or something is possessing him, controlling him, speaking his thoughts and feelings _for_ him, but it isn’t him.” Twinkletoes explains, fear clear in his voice. “I think it might be Agni.”

“How?” Katara breathes, her focus so intent on the fight. “How could Agni be here?”

“It’s called an Agni Kai for a reason.” Captain Izumi answers, not taking her eyes off the two royals. “An Agni Kai is fought under Agni’s gaze so that Agni may choose to interfere if that is His wish. Two benders open themselves up to being Agni’s vessel when they step onto the stage. An Agni Kai is won or lost at Agni’s whim.”

“So, Zuko-“ Sokka starts to ask, only to be cut off by Captain Izumi, who nods her head.

“Fire Lord Zuko has been chosen by Agni to win. General Iroh can continue fighting, knowing he will lose and that Agni may not be merciful, or he can surrender and take his chances with Fire Lord Zuko.”

“Why did it come to this?” Aang asks, sounding so young and so lost all of a sudden. Toph is suddenly reminded just how young all of them are. They're children, none of them even considered adults in any of their nations and yet they're the ones stuck dealing with all of this and it's just too much! Too damn much!

“You took Fire Lord Ozai’s bending.” Captain Izumi answers, as if that explains everything, Toph suddenly wonders if it does _for firebenders._

“Why is that such a bad thing?” she asks, the question she thinks someone should have asked in that room before things got so out of hand.

“Firebenders have an inner flame; this flame is what allows them to bend.” Izumi explains to them, getting nods from them all. “If that flame goes out, the firebender dies.” Toph feels her heart clench in her chest. Sparky has been dying slowly in front of them for _days_ and instead of trying to do something to help him, they’ve just been piling more stress on him and then this… this stupid fight, it could have killed him.

“But Ozai’s alive! I spared him!” Aang argues, Toph feels his heart spike along with his breathing.

“For now.” Izumi confirms with a nod. “But, over time he will begin to grow cold, his fingers and his toes will begin to blacken as the skin layers start to freeze, as what heat he has rushes to his core. No matter what anyone does, he’ll grow colder and colder and colder until he freezes to death. As if he were trapped in the snow fields of the North Pole or lost in polar waters. He will never again be warm.” Toph shivers, knowing she’s not the only one. It would have been mercy to kill Ozai, rather than subject him to that.

“But the Lion-turtle-“

“Oh. Lion-turtles used to give bending long before there was an Avatar, when the Spirit World and the Living World were still joined. Firebenders weren’t born, they were made, and the fire was claimed back by the Lion-turtles when it wasn’t needed anymore. After the First Avatar, Wan, locked the Spirit World away from the Living World, the Lion-turtles decided they no longer needed to defend the humans, so they pushed them out into the world to fend for themselves. Bending became a myth, until Fire Nation ancestors were taught how to bend fire by the dragons. Badger-moles taught the Earth Kingdom ancestors. Air-bison taught the Air Nomads, who were nomads even then, and the moon along with the now extinct spider-squids taught the ancestors of the Water Tribes.”

Toph ponders this for only a moment, as her attention is pulled back to the fight by the feel of a body dropping to the ground, but both of the royals are still alive. Uncle is kneeling.

“I yield to the will of Agni.” He’s saying, though his heart is still doing that odd little stutter in his chest, it’s not bad, not the way Zuko’s was. It’s not _good,_ but Toph isn’t worried he’s going to just drop dead in front of them all. She quickly realizes that _he’s_ not the one she should be worried about.

Zuko sucks in a breath, his shoulders slumping, then all too quickly his inner flame is dying, flickering, struggling and going out, leaving only softly burning embers behind. His heart is quick to stutter-stop-start-stop-start, and so, painfully slowly her friend collapses to the ground. His heart feels like it's doing the equivalent of flailing uselessly. Like it knows it has a job and it knows what that job is, but it just can't do it, not in any form, but it'll still keep trying, even if it kills them.

“His heart’s not beating right.” Toph finds herself screaming. “Agni’s gone and his heart is not beating right! His flame, it’s… it’s going out!!” Katara is already moving, so is Uncle, though Izumi is suddenly there, between Uncle and Zuko, holding him back.

“I think you’ve done enough, _General_.” Izumi is saying, and everything is going so, so, so _wrong_.

“This isn’t good.” Katara is saying, where Toph can feel her manually pumping Zuko’s blood through his body. She is his heart now. “Guys, this isn’t good. Toph, I need you. You have to breathe for him.” Toph doesn’t remember moving, but she finds herself falling down beside Sparky, anyway, beginning to perform what Katara’s healing teacher had called chest compressions and rescue breathing. “I need Iroh!” Katara commands, she’s already slipped her Healer’s mask on, so when she speaks, Izumi only hesitates once, before stepping out of the way. Iroh joins Toph at Zuko’s side in _less_ than a heartbeat, because Zuko’s heart isn’t really beating anymore.

“What can I do?” he demands, his voice frantic in a way Toph has never heard him. Uncle gets sad, he gets angry, he gets snarky, he gets flirty, he doesn’t _ever_ get frantic.

“You need to shock his heart. The electrical signals in his heart are out of rhythm and I have no means of getting them back. Yogoda hasn’t taught that to me yet. But he needs a quick, powerful shock to the heart to revive him or he is going to die.”

“It’s too strong, Katara, it will kill him.” Uncle argues, that too frantic sound still wrapped around his words and Toph _hates_ it.

“You’re the first person _ever_ to redirect lightning. You can’t tell me you haven’t spent time studying what else you could do with it.” Uncle still hesitates so Katara sighs. “If you don’t do this, he’s going to die anyway. If he dies and you didn’t try to save him, are you going to be able to live with that?” she asks, her voice quiet and deliberately without emotion. Uncle sucks in a breath, his heart stuttering and Toph narrows her eyes and stubbornly commands Uncle’s heart to get its shit together, they do not have time for him to be going down, too!

“A quick shock?” he asks Katara, who nods. Uncle breathes in deeply and rests two fingers over Zuko’s heart. Toph can feel the electricity building within him, it’s not the same as when he’s used it in the past. It’s different this time, but she can’t explain how. The zap when it comes is so unexpected, what’s even more unexpected is the way Sparky’s entire body jerks so violently beneath her hands.

There is a moment, where nobody moves except Katara, Toph doesn’t know what they’re all waiting for until she feels it. A weak, but _there_ beating of Sparky’s heart. She and Katara release relieved breaths at the same moment.

“His heart is beating.” Katara explains to Iroh, who all but collapses in relief. “It will take time for him to recover, but he _will_ recover. He needs rest, fluids, and little excitement.”

“Thank you for your assistance, Healer Katara.” Izumi cuts in, Toph realizes suddenly that the guards have surrounded them. Their bodies tense and ready for a fight.

“You are welcome to remain in the palace, but the Avatar will have to leave. He is not welcome on Fire Nation territory, as per direct instructions of Fire Lord Zuko.” Toph could, she really could let them do this, let them kick Aang out, because she knows they’d all leave with him, except _probably_ Uncle and probably her, too, but she doesn’t let that happen. Doesn’t let that happen, because the war will never be over, then, they’ll never have a settlement, there will never be _peace._

“Incorrect.” She states, lifts her head and turns in Izumi’s direction, feeling her court mask slip on. “Fire Lord Zuko commanded that Avatar Aang was not welcome on Fire Nation land until he figured out what he had done to Fire Lord Ozai and why it was bad. _You_ told us what he did and why it was bad. Avatar Aang is no longer banned from Fire Nation lands until the Fire Lord decides otherwise.” Izumi considers Toph’s words before nodding her head.

“You are correct, Lady Beifong. However, if the Avatar chooses to remain, he will be confined to his quarters and the courtyard until Fire Lord Zuko says otherwise.” She states, turning to look at Aang until Twinkletoes slumps but nods his head. Then, Izumi turns to Iroh. “Prince Iroh will be confined to quarters until Fire Lord Zuko determines your fate.”

“I wish to stay with him.” Iroh argues, but Izumi isn’t having it.

“If he asks for you, we will send for you. Until we know if the Fire Lord wishes to ever see your face again, you will be confined to quarters.” Izumi commands. “If you choose to fight me on this, you will be imprisoned.” Uncle slumps, his inner fire dimming, but not going out, not settling to embers the way Sparky’s had.

“I will go quietly.”

“Good.” Izumi signals her men and three guards step forward to lead Iroh away.

* * *

Toph isn’t really sure how much time passes since she accompanied Sparky and his guard to the infirmary. At first, they hadn’t been too keen to let her stay with him, until she’d told them she was accepting Sparky’s job offer and had pointed out that she could monitor Sparky’s health better than any of them could, since she’d been the only one to know something was wrong since the moment she first felt his heart beating. Izumi had been quick to accept her offer, then.

True to her word, she notices almost immediately when there is an uptick in Sparky’s heartbeat and she smirks.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Sparky.” She greets, ignoring his confused groan.

“What happened?”

“You defeated your uncle in the Agni Kai with help from Agni Himself, then your heart promptly stopped beating.”

“Oh.” His heart lurches and Toph’s breath catches as she stubbornly commands it to sort its shit out. “I beat General Iroh?” he asks, his voice devoid of anything Toph might call sentiment, she winces.

“Yes.” She answers, paying attention to that sudden lurch of his heart again. “Can you calm down? I don’t think we’ll get you back again if your heart stops again.”

“Right.” Sparky answers, reaching a hand up to press over his heart, controlling his breathing. Fire comes from the breath, that’s what Uncle had always said when teaching Aang, so she doesn’t understand how Sparky isn’t considered to be a master bender when his breath control is always on point. His breath control is better than _Aang’s_ and Aang is an _airbender_ , they’re all about breathing. “Where is General Iroh?” she startles a little when Zuko speaks again but is quick to recover.

“Captain Izumi has confined him to quarters.” She feels how tense Sparky has suddenly become and she hates it, hates this whole stupid thing, they were on their way to resolving things, maybe they wouldn’t have resolved things in any definition of the word ‘quickly’ but they were talking, they were getting into things and now Iroh and Aang are confined, treated like enemies, and Sparky literally _died_ in front of her.

“Good. I’ll have someone escort him out of the Fire Nation. He can return to his tea shop.”

“Sparky-“

“I could have him executed, instead. It’s what my father would do. It’s probably what Azula would do, too.” He answers, though Toph can already tell he doesn’t want to do that, he doesn’t want to do any of this but he’s sad and hurt and so betrayed she can feel him shaking with it. Katara felt entitled to feel like Zuko betrayed her in Ba Sing Se, but at least her brother has never betrayed her, at least her father has never betrayed her, at least everyone she looks to for support and guidance has never betrayed her, literally to death.

“They aren’t Fire Lord anymore, you are.” Toph answers, for a lack of anything else to say, only Sparky smirks in response and she knows she’s missed something.

“Actually, that’s wrong, technically.” Zuko answers, with a little laugh. “Fire Nation tradition gives credence to the idea of Sibling-Rulers. Where two siblings carry the same right to the throne, to ensure the Nation does not fall into Civil War, _both_ siblings are crowned Fire Lord. They share the throne between them, as they will one day share an heir and a spare. As Azula never designated a regent and has been rendered medically unfit to rule at this moment, I assume regency for her. Had General Iroh won the Agni Kai, he’d have had to defeat Azula as well, since with my death she becomes the sole ruler of the Fire Nation.” Zuko explains, sounding so smug it actually makes Toph feel a little sick.

“But I thought Azula was no longer-“

“She was never actually dethroned. No one has actually bothered to inform her that she’s been deposed, so it was easy to convince her to sign the documents that would ensure we are both seen as Fire Lord, though I guess to be less confusing I’ll be Fire Lord, she will be Fire Lady and we’ll have to dig out the little used terms of Fire Consorts for whatever spouses we find in future.” Zuko shrugs at that, like the idea of his future bride isn’t something to concern himself with. Like the idea that he's going to be sharing the throne with his sister isn't something to worry about.

“You can’t have had long to plan that.”

“Well, no, the moment I left the meeting, I found the paperwork and went to see my sister. It just wouldn’t have been good to let her be ignorant to General Iroh’s manipulations. He blindsided me, but I’ll never let anyone hurt my sister if I can help it.” Zuko promises and Toph’s really getting sick of the way Sparky says ‘General Iroh’ like he’s something on the bottom of Zuko’s shoe.

“Sparky, your uncle thought he was doing what was best.”

“So did my father, you know? So did Aang. Doing what you think best doesn’t excuse your actions.” Zuko sucks in a breath, even as his heart stutters. “At least my father never pretended to love me, then stabbed me in the back when I was least expecting it. But then, Sozin pretended to love Roku, and stabbed him in the back, too, right at his worst moment. Betrayed to his death. So, I guess I really only have myself to blame for this. For trusting someone who was old enough to toddle about under Fire Lord Sozin’s doting golden eyes.”

“Zuko, your uncle loves you.” Toph tries again, because she refuses to believe that Uncle has fooled her in this, she won’t believe it. Uncle loves Zuko, sometimes he loves Zuko more than he loves anyone or anything else, even _tea_. She _knows_ this. She thinks Zuko probably knows that, too, and that’s why it hurts so much.

“Azula loves me, too.” He points out, his chi pathways expanding before there’s a sudden heat and Toph assumes he’s holding fire the way Uncle sometimes does when he thinks and he has nothing else to occupy his hands. “Azula loves me and that’s never stopped her from hurting me before. At least I expect it from her, that’s just who she is. But General Iroh has always just been _Uncle,_ so I forget that he laid siege to Ba Sing Se for six hundred days. He’s always just been _Uncle_ so I forget how he slew the last dragon. He’s always just been _Uncle,_ so I forget that he was always _Grandfather’s_ favourite. Well, I learnt my lesson.”

“Your family doesn’t know how to do this family thing, does it?” Toph asks, smiling a little when Zuko laughs.

“Azula said that if Uncle managed to beat both of us, every member of the royal family would have had a go on the throne in the last four months, she said anyone would think our family knows how to share.” He says a smile on his voice and Toph snorts.

“Yeah, no. Your family did _not_ learn how to share!” she argues, shaking her head, before becoming serious. “Okay, I know you don’t want to hear this, but I accepted your job offer, so it’s my job to tell you when people are lying. Your uncle loves you. He thought he was doing what was best, even though it was absolutely the dumbest dumb plan ever. He’s an old fool who thinks he knows better than everyone. Give him a chance to make it up to you, even if he never does, he can spend his life trying, because _he will_. The knowledge that he has lost your trust and will probably never get it back is punishment enough. If you send him away, it’ll probably kill him.”

“Fine.” Zuko responds, looking at her with what she knows has to be a glare of epic, but unseen, proportions. “He can even sit in on our treaty negotiations, but he’s going to be watched and if he’s caught committing treason, he’s going to be executed, Toph.”

“Zuko-“

“He committed treason the whole time he was on the Wani with me, he had to have if he’s one of their Grand Masters and he always seemed to have more information than even I could get. Which means he had a network of spies. He didn’t care that it might have gotten me and my whole crew killed. Ozai would never have believed me if I told him I didn’t know what Uncle was doing right under my nose. He condemned me to death and didn’t think I deserved to know.” Toph clenches her fist, because she’s figured out it’s a habit of Uncle’s to make plans and put them in action without telling the people around him who might be affected by them.

“If he commits treason, I’ll kill him myself.” Toph promises, because even from that first day that she met Uncle, everything he’s done has been for Zuko, or about Zuko, or just related to Zuko in some small away. If he commits treason, plots to have Zuko killed or dethroned or held captive or any of it, then she doesn’t know him at all and he’s just the General who killed countless of her country men and never truly paid the price.

* * *

The next morning, Caldera City wakes to find itself devoid of a fair number of Fire Sages, Generals, and other members of the palace staff, all having rushed out of the capital with hurried statements about going to care for sick relatives.

Zuko worries and sets his clerks on researching, to ensure there isn’t a new plague arising, of course. Azula laughs herself silly when Zuko tells her his worries and he listens patiently as she explains to him through her giggles what it means to be 'visiting sick relatives', then he’s just angry. It’s a state he’s very familiar with. He's been angry for a long time, it's probably the only reason he's still here. He's too angry to be anything else.

He wonders if Uncle’s betrayal will ever stop smacking him in the face.

Then, he thinks, his father’s never did, and never will, so why should Uncle’s be any different?

**Author's Note:**

> Some readers are really confused by the 'visiting sick relatives' thing which I didn't expect. If you haven't read Muffinlance's Towards rhe Sun fic maybe go do that since this fic is fanfic of that one and the phrase originates from there. 
> 
> In any case, whenever there is a shift of power within the Fire Nation Royal Family, those who have displeased the Incoming Fire Lord (in some way that has them fearing for their life) flee the capital with the reason 'visiting sick relatives'. In this case, those who conspired to put Iroh on the throne have gone off to 'visit sick relatives' since Iroh's play for the throne failed.


End file.
